1. Field
Embodiments presented herein relate to computer based techniques for manipulating animation drawings. More specifically, embodiments presented herein provide an approach for controlling the amount of temporal noise in sketchy animation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Artists frequently compose “sketchy” animation frames to create an initial version or impression of an animated scene. For example, as part of drawing an initial representation of an animated scene, an artist may draw a sequence of animation frames by hand. The artist may draw outlines of the animated characters and objects using sets of distinct line strokes for each animation frame. Such “sketchy” animation is often used to present an initial view of an animation scene or for an artist to present a given look or aesthetic for characters in the scene. Once editorial direction for an animation project is finalized, the frames may be redrawn using more formal line drawing techniques.
Compared to such cleaned-up drawings, individual sketches (i.e., a single animation frame) present a distinctive visual richness, where both silhouette and interior lines are composed from many rough strokes. This style allows another dimension of expressiveness, e.g., emotion, action, and other features to be conveyed through the sketchy drawings. The richness of this style provides a form of geometric noise in a drawing. Despite the positive aspects in individual frames, geometric noise becomes temporal noise in sequences and often becomes aesthetically unpleasant to view.
One common solution is to remove the geometric noise entirely. In production environments, e.g., early versions of animation are often composed of sequences of rough sketches. Later in the production pipeline, the rough sketches are systematically replaced either with clean-line drawings or with renderings of 3D scenes, which typically present cleaner visuals. Animations completely made of sketchy frame are less common and generally confined to short sequences or small productions.